by Kathy Wolfe
This week, Tidbits continues with its
lexiphanicism — showing off with big
words! It’s time to learn more about these
whatchamacallits and thingamajigs.
• Those who love cats are ailurophilists,
while those who love dogs are cynophilists.
People who love all animals are referred
to as philotherialists.
• Misogamists and misopedists often go
hand in hand. They hate marriage and
children, respectively. Gamophobists
don’t hate marriage; they’re just afraid of
it.
• Stop, thief! Look at the wide variety
of terms used to describe these crooks
— brigand, snaffler, kirkbuzzer, efter,
ladrone or footpad. The snaffler is mainly
a horse thief, while the kirkbuzzer robs
only churches. The efter steals from
theater customers while the performance
is on, and ladrones and footpads are
muggers who thieve while on foot. A
specialized pickpocket who targets only
churchgoers is referred to as an autem
diver.
• The Latin suffix “-aster” refers to
anything with a lesser status, for example,
a musicaster is a mediocre musician,
while a militaster is a soldier without
skills or abilities. The theologaster is
a shallow theologian who has no deep
spiritual thinking.
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• Pregnant women often have to endure
allotriophagy, that craving for strange
foods. Hopefully, they will choose items
that are salutiferous, meaning conducive
to health or well-being.
• If you shilly-shally, dodder, quail,
haw, demur or shrink before making a
decision, you merely hesitate. Let’s say
you’re diffident, gelid, reticent, chary or
delitescent — you’re considered rather
reserved. Now if someone calls you a
miscreant, wastral, garmin, reprobate or
varlet, consider yourself insulted. You’ve
been labeled a scoundrel!
• What do the words coquelicot, tilleul,
smaragdine and smalt have in common?
They are all names for different colors!
Coquelicot is a brilliant poppy red; tilleul
is a yellowish-green color; smaragdine is
emerald green; and smalt is a deep blue.
Speaking of colors, there is an actual
name for those who fear the color purple
— porphyrophobia.
• Good words come in small packages!
To aby means to make amends or atone
for an offense. A wen is an enormously
congested city. To soften something by
soaking is to ret it. That broad sash we see
wrapped around a kimono is an obi. And
kir is a drink composed of black currant
syrup and white wine.
• Don’t
confuse
philalethists
with
philatelists. The former are lovers of
truth, while the latter love collecting
postage stamps.
• How about that really boring person you
meet at a party who has absolutely no
conversational skills? This dull dude is a
macrologist, and he frequently engages in
battology — wearisome redundancy and
trifling talk. He’s enough to give you a bad
case of drapetomania, that uncontrollable
urge to run away!

• Some folks are famous for mentimutation
— the act of changing their minds. Some
might actually have hypobulia, which is
an inability to come to a decision.
• Do you have big feet? You’re sciapodous!
How about great big ears? You’re
macrotous! Maybe buck teeth, too? You’re
a gubbertush! Is there a noticeable gap
between those buck teeth? That’s called a
diastema. Let’s add a buccula to the mix;
that’s a double chin.
• Everyone knows a breedbate, an
individual who seems to enjoy starting
arguments and stirring up controversy.
Breedbates are occasionally suggilated
— beaten black and blue! And how about
that lazy loafer you know? He’s a drotchel,
scobberlotcher, ragabash, lobcock, lollard
or sluggard.
• Over the baize and into the side pocket!
Baize is the green felt-like cloth covering
your pool table.
• At one time or another, everyone has had
the misfortune of sitting behind a milver,
a person who chatters non-stop through a
movie. Related terms include pleniloquent
(one who is full of talk) and blatteroon (a
constant talker). Many of them have a
cacoethes loquendi, that unquenchable
desire to talk. No matter how you say it,
you just wish they’d shut up! (Several of
them are probably somniloquent as well,
meaning they even talk in their sleep!)
• The longest word in the English language
is pneumonoultramicrosocpicsilicovolcan
ocon-iosis, a disease resulting from overexposure to ultra-microscopic silicone
dust. Inhaling the dust found near
volcanoes is a major cause of this disease.
If this word frightens you, you may have
hippopotomonstro-squippedaliophobia,
the fear of long words.
• When the time comes to absquatulate,
it means it’s time to pull up stakes, to
decamp and flee.
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• There are numerous kinds of beggars —
A toothless beggar is a mumblecrust. One
who pretends that his tongue has been
cut out is a dommerer, while a female
beggar who borrows or hires several
children temporarily to arouse sympathy
is an autem mort. There’s a whole new
generation of beggars. The beggar whose
parents are beggars is a palliard. If he
bangs on a dish or cup to attract your
attention, he’s a clapperdudgeon. No
matter how you say it — mendicant,
cadger, bezonian, panhandler, sponge,
supplicant or gaberlunzie — He’s still a
beggar. But, only a beggar monk can be a
gyrovague.
• What are you afraid of? If you are an
epistaxiophobic, you are afraid of getting a
nosebleed. Astrapophobics hide under the
bed during thunder and lightning storms,
while nosocomephobics have a fear of
hospitals. Those suffering from pnigophobia
are afraid of choking on fish bones, and
koimetrophobics avoid cemeteries. Most
people wouldn’t see anything unusual
in being a little selacophobic or afraid of
sharks.
• When thinking of someone you know who
is a workaholic, remember the technical
term for someone who loves work is an
ergophile.
• Pity the poor fellow who’s married to an
objurgatrix! His wife is a nagging, carping,
fault-finding battle-ax of a woman. Other
terms of endearment for this special lady
include termagant, shrew, beldam, virago,
harridan and xanthippe.
• Something that causes cancer is said to be
carcinogenic. Cariogenic items are much
less serious — They cause dental cavities.

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a waythan
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COMMUNITY FEATURES

Big Ben is a well-known symbol of London,
towering above the Parliament buildings.
Here is a collection of facts you may not
know about this famous landmark.
• When you think of Big Ben, the tall tower
surely comes to mind, but the moniker
actually applies to the bell housed within
the clock tower, officially known as the
Great Bell. It is most likely named after
London’s first Commissioner for works, Sir
Benjamin Hall, and his name is inscribed
on the bell. It was originally intended that
it would be called the Royal Victoria bell.
• The tower itself is named, not so
creatively, the Clock Tower and is the
third-tallest free-standing clock tower in
the world. It’s the third tower to be built
on Parliament’s grounds. The first was
begun in 1288 during the reign of King
Edward I and also contained a clock and
a bell named Great Edward, which was
rung on the hour. This was replaced in
1367 with England’s first public chiming
clock. It stood for 340 years.
• When a devastating fire destroyed much
of the palace of Westminster in 1834,
the plans to rebuild did not include a
new tower. These plans were altered to
include it in 1836, but actual construction
of the current Clock Tower did not begin
until 1843. Construction continued for
nearly 16 years. When the clock was
finally installed, it was discovered that
it wouldn’t work because the cast iron
minute hands were too heavy! They were
replaced with lighter copper hands, and
the four-sided clock began keeping time
in May of 1859. The Great Bell known
as Big Ben wasn’t rung for the first time
until that July.
• Just as the Clock Tower isn’t the first,
neither is Big Ben the first bell. The first
one developed a four-inch crack while it
was being tested in 1857, and a new one
was cast. Sixteen white horses pulled
a carriage carrying the bell to the New
Palace Yard. It took 18 hours to raise
the bell into the belfry. Late in 1859,
two fractures were found in Big Ben.
The hammer was replaced with a lighter
version, and the bell was rotated so that
an undamaged section would be struck.
This second bell still resides in the Tower.
• The tower is 316 feet (96.3 m) tall, about
16 stories. Each of the clock’s four dials is
23 feet square (49.15 sq. m). The minute
hands are 14 feet (4.26 m) long, while the
numerals are two feet (0.6 m) tall. The base
of each dial contains a Latin inscription,
which translates “O Lord, keep safe our
Queen Victoria the First.”
• During World War I, the bell was not
rung, and the clock was unlit at night to
protect it from German Zeppelin attacks.
During World War II, the bells were rung,
but also from a darkened tower.
• Although it’s one of the world’s most
famous tourist attractions, only United
Kingdom residents are allowed inside to
tour Big Ben. Tours must be booked well
in advance only through a Parliament
member, with parties limited to 16 people,
who must climb the 334 stairs to the top
of its 11 floors, since there is no elevator.

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STRANGE BUT TRUE
By Samantha Weaver
● It was celebrated physicist Albert
Einstein who made the following sage
observation: Anyone who has never made
a mistake has never tried anything new.
● It was in 1917 when one Dr. Walter
G. Walford wrote an article warning
readers of the perils of tight collars
and ties, claiming that such constricting neckwear caused illness by retarding
the flow of blood to the brain.
● It’s fairly well known that seahorses
are monogamous, staying with the same
mate until death. Many people don’t realize, however, that these fish are so
devoted that every day they reaffirm
their union with a morning greeting
dance.
● When Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti,
got married, there were more security
personnel than guests in attendance.
● America got its first paved street
back in 1647. It was, un-surprisingly, in
New York City.
● The fastest known star is traveling
through space at a rate of 3.5 million
miles per hour.
● The figure on the Heisman trophy
was sculpted from a real person. Warren Mulrey played football for Fordham
University when John Heisman chose
him to be the model for the new award.
● If you’re like the average American,
you use 2 gallons of water every time
you brush your teeth. So turn off that
faucet while you brush!
● If you like squash, corn, beans, pecans,
chili peppers, pumpkins, maple syrup or
cranberries, you have Native Americans to thank -- theyÕre the ones who
taught Europeans to gather and use
these foods. In fact, by the end of the
past century, fully one-third of all crops
grown in the United States were of Native American origin.
●It’s not easy to contemplate, but before there was toilet paper, American
colonists used corncobs.
***
Thought for the Day: Nothing pains
some people more than having to think.
Martin Luther King Jr.
.(c)2010 King Features Synd., Inc.

TOOLS 4 LIFE
BY DR JIM COYLE
It’s OK To Be Different

Have you wondered why it is so easy to talk to some
people and so difficult to talk to others? Have you ever
caught yourself wanting to disappear from a room when
someone pushes your exit button? It is so important for
us realize that people have different communication
styles that might rub us the wrong way. Once I accept
that not everyone is like me, my world gets a little
bigger. Here are some different communication styles
• LEAVE ME ALONE style; usually quiet, alone
and introverted
• TAKE CHARGE style: frank, assertive, and
controlling
• YOU MAKE THE CHOICE style: nonattention seeking, patient, and passive
• IT’S ALL ABOUT ME style: likes the lime
light, spontaneous, and persuasive

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Senior News Line
by Matilda Charles

Lowering the Risk of

Hypertension

Some of us with high blood pressure
have adjusted our diets and medications to bring it under control -- to no
avail. Chances are those of us who still
struggle with hypertension inherited
the condition. Or perhaps we don’t have
it yet but seem destined to by family
medical history. Having just one parent
with high blood pressure dramatically
increases the odds of being hypertensive.
Genes are tough to beat. But there
might be an answer.
A study in the May issue of the journal
Hypertension showed that merely walking 150 minutes per week (30 minutes a
day for five days) can lower the risk in
people who are genetically likely to get
high blood pressure.
Researchers tracked more than 6,000
people in different categories: those
who had one parent with high blood
pressure, those who were not physically
fit and those who were very fit.
The result: Those with high levels of
physical fitness had a 42 percent lower
risk, and the moderately fit had a 26
percent lower risk. To further show how
exercise impacted the results, those
who were very fit, even having a family
predisposition, had an increased risk of
only 16 percent.
On the other end of the extreme, those
who had a family history and a lower
level of physical fitness had a whopping
70 percent higher risk. That’s a double
whammy.
The results are clear: Even if a parent
has high blood pressure, you can lower
the chance that you’ll have high blood
pressure by exercising. The better your
level of fitness, the more you can decrease your odds. The benefits are potentially huge.
Matilda Charles regrets that she cannot
personally answer reader questions, but
will incorporate them into her column
whenever possible. Write to her in care of
King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box
536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send
e-mail to columnreply@gmail.com.
(c) 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.

P
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“NATIONAL”
WORDSIA(continued):
Cedar Rapids,
52402
• French: Chefs
know what it means to
319-892-0284
www.pastoralcarecentercr.com
“french”
a food item. It’s a verb that means
to cut into thin strips, like, well, french fries.
(And yes, that’s how the finger-friendly poSaving a Life from a Catastrophe
tato every
dish tookminutes!
its name.) Green beans are
11
another item commonly prepared in this
manner.

I live

• Maltese: These tiny spaniels are easy to
identify thanks to their long, silky coats. The
American Kennel Club groups
them with other “Toy
Dogs” like Pugs and
butYorkshire Terriers.
.
Feline aficionados
.
also use the term
Maltese to describe
cats that have a similarly silky, grayOne touch of a button
blue coat.

alone

I’m never alone
I have

sends
help
24/7. things
• Colombian:
This
term fast,
means different
to different people, depending on how you
get your “jones.” Narcotics dealers may refer
to their products as Colombian, although the
Foractual
a source brochure
call: Luckily, the
is often unknown.
majority of us prefer a bit of legal Colombian, as in the coffee grown in the South
American nation. The prevalence of coffee
shops throughout America is proof enough
that many of us just can’t get along in the
morning without a hot cup of Colombian.

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• Chinese: The generic term “chinese” now
represents types of food that are very different from the meals that are (or ever were)
served in China. That said, the same argument could be made about what we consider
“American” food. Hamburgers? Ice cream?
Hot dogs? Pizza? Our national favorites
seem to have originated everywhere except
in the United States!
Information in the Tidbits® Paper is gathered from sources considered
to be reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed.

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JUNK FOOD

Junk food might be defined as “food that
contributes lots of calories but has little
nutritional value.” Let’s learn a little more
about a few not-so-healthy choices.
• What’s for breakfast? If you choose a
bowl of Trix cereal, that product will be
38 percent sugar and will add a little red,
yellow and blue dye to your system. How
about some Froot Loops? Your portion will
be 41 percent sugar, unless you opt for the
marshmallow version, which computes to
48 percent sugar and more of those dyes. If
you’re cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, you’ll have a
44 percent ratio of sugar. A healthier choice
would be Wheat Chex or Shredded Wheat,
both at less than 3 percent sugar.
• In 1930, baker James Dewar was dismayed
that the strawberry season was so short;
it was limiting his sales of shortcakes. In
order to prolong his sales past the fresh
fruit season, he experimented with filling
his sponge cakes with cream. He called
them “Twinkle Toes Shoes,” but the name
was later shortened to “Twinkies.” Hostess
bakes up about 500 million Twinkies a
year, each with about 150 calories. That
creamy center is no longer cream at all, but
rather mostly Crisco shortening.
• When Pringles debuted in October 1968 in
their signature cylindrical can, they were
known as Pringles Newfangled Potato
Chips. Other manufacturers immediately
objected, claiming that the product was not
a potato chip at all, considering that only
42 percent of the snack is potato-based
product, with the remainder composed of
wheat starch and corn and rice flours. The
U.S. Food & Drug Administration ordered
the company to change the name to “potato
crisps.” The snack was named for a street
in Cincinnati, Pringle Drive, spotted by a
Procter & Gamble employee.
• The American Dietetic Association
recommends a maximum daily caloric
intake of 2,000 calories for a sedentary adult
and a maximum of 60 grams of fat. Order
up a Big Mac with a super-sized Coke and
fries, and you’ll ingest 1,460 calories and
58 grams of fat. That’s a pretty scary figure
when you consider that the average person
visits McDonalds 1,811 times in his or her
lifetime. Want to burn off that McDonalds
lunch? It will take you seven straight hours
of walking to burn off the above meal.
• Although popcorn seems to fill up the box
of Cracker Jacks, it’s not the principal
ingredient — sugar and corn syrup are.
This tasty snack was introduced at the
1893 Chicago World’s Fair, but the box
didn’t contain a toy prize until 1912.
• In addition to being high in calories, soda
pop can lead to significant tooth enamel
loss. The acids in soft drinks are nearly
as corrosive to enamel as battery acid. In
an experiment conducted by dentists, one
group of children were given a can of pop
every day for three years, and another
group, water. The pop drinkers had 50 to
150 percent more tooth decay!
• Snickers, the most popular candy bar in
the world, is a 280-calorie treat with 14
grams of fat. It takes 100 tons of peanuts to
produce the 15 million bars manufactured
daily. Frank Mars, founder of the Mars
candy company, named the confection after
the Mars family’s favorite horse.
• Visit your local 31-flavor ice cream
parlor and ask for a double-scoop. With
31 varieties, there are 496 different
combinations you could receive.

“I’ve just had the most awful time,” said a boy
724
3rd St. S.E. Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
to his friends. “First I got angina pectoris, then

319-363-5010

319-826-1835
arteriosclerosis. Just as
I was recovering, I
got psoriasis. They gave me hypodermics,
and to top it all, tonsillitis was followed by
appendectomy.” “Wow! How did you pull
through?” sympathized his friends. “I don’t
know,” the boy replied. “Toughest spelling test
I ever had.”

HGIRBANLTE

This word means: Talking
continuously about unimportant
things

3rd Street S.E.

0/01
11/60
6/12/24

Downtown
Cedar Rapids

1. Obsession with facial wrinkles

8th Ave S.E.

le

June 13th 2012

4/46
2. Haters of war
63 Advice from a poor English teacher: Don’t
3. Tossut
6/43 never use no triple negatives.
4. Half-asleep 1. Plastic surgeons love people with
“I’ve just had the most awful time,” said a boy
5. Building a nest
rhytiscopia. What is it?
to his friends. “First I got angina pectoris, then
2. During the 1960s, misopolemiacs were
arteriosclerosis. Just as I was recovering, I
common. Who are they?
got psoriasis. They gave me hypodermics,
MOMENTS IN TIME
3. What is a fancy name for a little tunnel
and to top it all, tonsillitis was followed by
The History Channel
between the two main rooms of an igloo?
appendectomy.”
How11,
did 1509,
you pull King Henry VIII of Eng● On “Wow!
June
4. If you’re semisomnous, what are you?
through?”
sympathized
his
friends.
“I don’t
land
marries
Catherine
of Aragon, the first
● On June 16, 1884, the first roller coaster
5. When a bird nidiﬁcates, what is it doing?
know,”
the
boy
replied.
“Toughest
spelling
test
of
six
wives
he
will
have
in his lifetime. When
in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn,
I
ever
had.”
Catherine
failed
to
produce
a male heir, HenN.Y. Known as a switchback railway, it traveled

It became popular for an insane asylum
to be called the “loony bin” right around
Sasha Obama 6/10/01
1919. The term for those who were slightly
Dr. Mehmet Oz 6/11/60
crazy, “gaga,” came along the following
1. Boasting or bragging
George H. W. Bush 6/12/24
year. The next year marked the addition of
Tim Allen case
6/13/53 of
2. You have a nasty
“junkie,” slang for a drug addict, followed
Donald Trump 6/14/46
body odor
by use of “bimbo” to denote an “attractive
Helen Hunt 6/15/63
but unintelligent young woman” in 1922.
Joan Van Ark 6/16/43
Ladies started exclaiming, “What a hunk!”
about attractive gentlemen around
1940.
wanted to be totally accurate, she would say, “Press the octoated it.